Gatorade hat trick for CVU’s Eastman

CVU’s Autumn Eastman (center, wearing number 1) sets off in the girls 1,500 meter run during the Vermont state meet earlier this month. She won that event, as well as the 800 and 3,000 meter runs, leading to her second year being named the Vermont Gatorade Track and Field Girls Athlete of the Year. (Observer photo by Al Frey)

By Mal BorightObserver correspondent

Not one, not two, but three.
That’s the number of Gatorade top Vermont athlete awards Champlain Valley Union High’s Autumn Eastman has corralled, counting the announcement last week that the recently graduated senior is Vermont’s Gatorade Track and Field Girls Athlete of the Year for a second straight spring.
This past fall, the Redhawks’ distance pace setter was the Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
This track and field season Eastman dominated the Division 1 championships with victories in the 800-meter run, the 1,500 and the 3,000 in a memorable day on the Burlington High track. The trio of victories led CVU girls to second place in the team standings.
But not by athletic prowess alone does the Gatorade honor go to an individual. Academics and community service are also considerations.
Eastman maintained a 4.03 grade point average. She was a member of CVU’s Athletic Leadership Club and does volunteer work as a peer tutor and ski instructor.
In the fall, she will become a student runner at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
On the boys’ side, Alec Eschholz of Mount Mansfield Union High was the Gatorade winner. The MMU senior took two hurdles events plus the high and long jumps at the Division 1 championship meet. It was Eschholz’s second-straight Gatorade award.